NI 442 - May, 2011

Climate change denial

A note from the editor

Getting to grips with the climate deniers

To those who need no convincing on the matter of human-induced climate change, encountering deniers can be baffling and tiring in equal measure. It’s not just the spurious arguments, it’s the passionate conviction with which they are voiced that can wrong-foot one. Deniers also have a pesky habit of switching from one charge to the next, rather than staying the course of the argument.

So this edition offers an article to hold them still for a while. It had been our intention for some time to present a guide to rebutting the arguments most commonly used by the deniers, including some that have a degree of scientific credibility. And in writer and climate activist Danny Chivers we found the perfect person to do the job.

Danny has been on the frontline of such exchanges long enough to have the arguments, wit and facts to hand – but, as he was keen to point out, the psychology of denial plays an important role and knowing how to talk to a denier is perhaps as important as what you say. He is also the author of our brand new book The No-Nonsense Guide to Climate Change: The science, the solutions, the way forward.

The flipside – the absurd and dangerous lengths we go to in pursuing fossil fuels – is revealed in our piece on fracking – a term, I fear, we will be seeing in headlines more and more. Not sure what it is? Find out the, literally, earthshaking truth on page 24.

Finally, Morwari Zafar’s compelling report from Afghanistan demonstrates yet again why the West’s crazy war on drugs fails the real victims every time.

Dinyar Godrej for the New Internationalist co-operative.www.newint.org

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